"Looting" vs. "finding": How to distinguish?

NEW YORK — In one photo, a man wades through chest-deep waters with a large black bag filled with items from a grocery. In another, two people wade through equally high waters, carrying bread and soda.

What has drawn attention to these two photos, both taken Tuesday, is their captions.

In the first, the young man, who is black, is described as having "looted" the items. In the second, a white or light-skinned couple are described as "finding" the items.

The photos were by two photographers working for different news agencies — The Associated Press and AFP/Getty Images. But on the Internet they appeared together on Yahoo News, and they sparked a flurry of blog entries, e-mails and calls contending the captions were unfair to blacks.

"The pictures appear to be identical, but one individual is 'looting' and the other is 'finding' needed items!" one person wrote AP. "This is irresponsible journalism and fuels the attitude that 'all' African Americans are looters."

Yahoo withdrew the photo of the light-skinned pair Thursday at the request of Agence France Presse (AFP), which distributes Getty's U.S.-produced photos internationally. Yahoo wrote that it "regrets that these photos and captions, viewed together, may have suggested a racial bias on our part."

AFP said it withdrew the photo because it had been flooded with time-consuming phone calls and e-mails, while already stretched in covering the enormous tragedy.

The Associated Press said its policy was clear.

"When we see people go into businesses and come out with goods, we call it looting," said Santiago Lyon, AP's director of photography. "When we just see them carrying things down the road, we call it carrying items."

Lyon said the photographer of the AP photo, Dave Martin, had seen the man go into the store and take out the items.

As for the other photo, Getty said it stood by its caption and its photographer, Chris Graythen, who says the subjects of his photo were picking up items floating by in the dank waters.

And Graythen, frustrated by the controversy, wrote an emotional response on a photojournalism Web site, SportsShooter.com.

"These people were not ducking into a store and busting down windows to get electronics," he wrote. "They picked up bread and Cokes that were floating in the water. They would have floated away anyhow."

Yahoo said it believed the controversy was merely a result of the juxtaposition of the two photos.

"We've explained that this was two separate news organizations, two separate photographers and two separate occasions," said Joanna Stevens, spokeswoman for Yahoo. "Once people understand that, they're no longer angry with us."